Unable to survive in Egypt, refugees return to Sudan. Egypt hosts nine million refugees and immigrants

THIS stomach churning report paints a picture of hopeless despair: unable to survive in Egypt, Sudanese refugees are returning to Sudan not knowing how or where to sleep safely. "We can't go back, we can't move anywhere else, and we can't stay here," Ali said from a Sudanese community centre in Cairo which is also under threat of eviction. Their priority, many told AFP, is finding anywhere safe to lay their heads, even if only on a cold tile floor. 

Read more in report from AFP via Yahoo.com
By Bahira Amin
Dated Tuesday, 13 February 2024, 1:55 AM GMT - here is a copy in full:

Unable to survive in Egypt, refugees return to war-torn Sudan

Sudanese drivers rest on May 14, 2023 after transporting evacuees from Sudan into Egypt, in Wadi Karkar village near Aswan (Khaled DESOUKI)

Ten months after Sudan's brutal war sent hundreds of thousands fleeing, many of those who sought refuge in neighbouring Egypt are caught between the grim choice of homelessness or returning at their own peril.

Single mother Rehab has been in Egypt for seven months, fighting to build a life for her children. "I have a daughter who was born here, and I can't work to provide for her," the 28-year-old told AFP.

Gathered in a small church in eastern Cairo, dozens of women like Rehab said their families -- cramped into overcrowded apartments -- have been sleeping on bare floors since they arrived.

"People came to Egypt thinking life will be better here," 28-year old Ibram Kiir, a Sunday school teacher from Sudan who has been in Egypt for five years and helps refugees through the church, told AFP.  "But then reality hits. They don't have any money, they can't get an apartment, it's cold and they can't get winter clothes. So they turn back," he said.

Since the fighting began in April between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, over 450,000 people have crossed the border into Egypt, according to official figures. Their priority, many told AFP, is finding anywhere safe to lay their heads, even if only on a cold tile floor.

But as the months stretch on, employment, proper housing and help become nearly impossible to find, with Egypt's two-year economic crisis rapidly worsening. Soaring inflation -- which registered a record high of 39.7 percent last year -- decimated livelihoods just as war-weary Sudanese began arriving.

Many turned up with just the clothes on their backs. They ended up staying in small apartments with two or three families at a time, many of them with only one breadwinner between them earning less than minimum wage.

Dan Mhik Akom, a 34-year-old who cleans houses part-time, tried to convince a friend things would get better. But after months watching his family "unable to even get to the kitchen to feed themselves" because of overcrowding, "he made up his mind and returned to Sudan," he told AFP.

- 'Rather die' -

Another Sunday school teacher, Randa Hussein, said her cousin left Cairo in October, heading back to her home on the war-ravaged outskirts of Khartoum. She said she "would rather die there than stay here," said Hussein, 33. Her family has not heard from her since.

Hussein is now hosting another refugee, a 20-year old mother of two who had been staying with her grandmother, until the landlord threatened the elderly woman with eviction if the newcomers did not leave. Unable to find a job or an apartment, "she's insisting on going back to Sudan," Hussein said. "She has a one-year-old she can't feed. She doesn't know what to do."

Yet back in Sudan, the situation is no better: her Khartoum neighbourhood has been shelled beyond recognition, and the homes that still stand are overrun with fighters. 

"People are being forced to choose between being homeless and being unsafe," said Sudanese political economist Raga Makawi. "Unable to afford even squalid conditions in Egypt, they choose to go back, preferring to negotiate their security with armed actors however they can," she told AFP.

The threat of homelessness is just around the corner for several Sudanese AFP interviewed.

Hawa Talfon, a preacher's wife, was kicked out with only two weeks' notice for hosting too many displaced family members. She had lived in her home in eastern Cairo for five years, before her brother's family joined her to flee the war. "What was I supposed to do? Kick them out?" she asked, after her landlord objected to her guests.

- 'Burden' -

AFP heard from dozens of Sudanese families across Cairo who faced the same fate, with landlords citing reasons such as "excess wear-and-tear" on their properties.

Under the shadow of the nationwide financial crisis, rights groups and Sudanese living in Egypt have warned of rising anti-refugee sentiment.

Yasser Ali, 40, who came to Cairo in 2002 to study law, told AFP that just in the past year, "everything has changed, people's attitudes have got a lot more aggressive."

According to Nour Khalil, founder of the advocacy organisation Refugees Platform in Egypt, there is "a concerted campaign, based purely on misinformation, to place the blame for the current economic crisis on society's most vulnerable."

Last month, the government said it would audit how much Egypt's "guests" -- as the administration calls nine million refugees and immigrants -- cost the country.

Almost in tandem, Khalil and other rights defenders tracked a rise in social media posts labelling refugees as a "burden", though most receive little to no assistance from either the United Nations or the government.

Cairo for its part holds that new arrivals are allowed to work and move "freely".

Rents have soared in Cairo as the economic crisis worsens, though rights groups and Sudanese told AFP landlords were specifically targeting Sudanese residents.

"You either pay up or they'll find someone who will," Kiir said, with some families like Talfon's given a different ultimatum: kick out "your own flesh and blood" or leave.

As the war rages, people have been left with no options.

"We can't go back, we can't move anywhere else, and we can't stay here," Ali said from a Sudanese community centre in Cairo -- which is also under threat of eviction.          

bha/sbh/dcp/jsa 

View original: https://news.yahoo.com/unable-survive-egypt-refugees-return-015555421.html

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South Sudan: Catholic Diocese of Yei launches 5-yr plan under theme “Let Down Your Nets for a Catch”

From Radio Tamazuj
Dated Friday, 15 December 2023 - here is a copy in full:

Catholic Diocese of Yei launches five-year strategic plan

Bishop Alex Lodiong Sakor Eyobo, Bishop of South Sudan's Yei Diocese. (Courtesy Photo) 

(JUBA CITY) - The Catholic Diocese of Yei in Central Equatoria State on Thursday launched its five-year strategic plan that will guide the operations of the church.

The 2024-2028 plan was launched under the theme “Let Down Your Nets for a Catch” and will focus on evangelism, social development, financial systems, monitoring, and evaluation.

The document will also guide the activities of all the parishes in the diocese as well as enhance the Church’s mission of providing for the spiritual and physical needs of the people.

Speaking during the launch in Juba on Thursday, Rt. Rev. Alex Lodiong Sakor, the Bishop of Yei Diocese, called on all stakeholders to own the document for easy implementation.

“This is a great event, a great event of faith first of all but a great event also for integrated development of the church as you have seen described in the strategic development. As we started today here in Juba, it is going to all our communities. We are not just launching a document; we are launching our commitment to make sure that what we have learned is realized,” declared Bishop Lodiong. “And I want to assure you from the very beginning when we were starting this process, I have been always optimistic and I am quite sure this strategy will succeed. I have said several times that the Diocese of Yei and many other places have been destroyed by bad will but goodwill will prevail.”

For her part, Jenifer Yobu, a parliamentarian and advisor on human rights in Central Equatoria State, hailed the church for reaching out to the people of God, saying it has boosted the spiritual morale of the people.

“The state government would like you to continue your pastoral work by reaching the people and by doing that you have raised the morale of the people spiritually,” she said. “As Christians, we also need to be filled by the word of God even if there is a struggle but with your presence in those areas, you have encouraged the people.”

View original: https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/catholic-diocese-of-yei-launches-five-year-strategic-plan

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Global Refugee Forum: 114m people are refugees or displaced, 90% of world's refugees are in 40 countries

"One hundred and fourteen million people – that's more than live in Egypt and almost as many as are in Japan – are refugees or displaced. Ninety percent of the world's refugees are in just 40 countries.  Seventy five percent of the world's refugees are being hosted by low and middle-income states, yet most financing goes to upper-middle income states. Just 4% of funding is going to countries of refugee origin. With these statistics ringing in our ears, the Global Refugee Forum began in Geneva". Read more.

From Anglican News
By Glen Ruffle

Dated 18 December 2023, 1:35 PM - here is a copy in full:

Anglicans at the Global Refugee Forum

The Anglican Communion’s Assistant Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, The Revd Glen Ruffle, recently attended the Global Refugee Forum. He writes:

One hundred and fourteen million people – that's more than live in Egypt and almost as many as are in Japan – are refugees or displaced. Ninety percent of the world's refugees are in just 40 countries.  Seventy five percent of the world's refugees are being hosted by low and middle-income states, yet most financing goes to upper-middle income states. Just 4% of funding is going to countries of refugee origin.

With these statistics ringing in our ears, the Global Refugee Forum began in Geneva.

Held over 13–15 December, with side-events and build-up events beforehand, the Global Refugee Forum was arranged by the UN's Refugee agency, UNHCR, which gathered the world's states, along with NGOs, churches, faith organisations, and refugees themselves, to discuss the situation and what can be done.

The number of wars across the world is at a decades-level high; climate change is destroying agricultural land; famine and drought is increasing. Unless we invest in addressing these root causes, the numbers of refugees will continue to increase dramatically. Many will lose 20 years of their lives in government processing and relocating before they can properly settle and move forwards.

The sad fact is that UNHCR is still waiting for $400 million of funding promised by the world's states, yet never delivered. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, still host to more than half a million Syrian refugees, has only received 23% of the money promised to help. States can also work smarter: investing in much-need conflict-prevention measures, rather than dealing reactively, and with much greater expense, with every new crisis.

Anglicans, and Christians more broadly, will continue helping refugees with or without state or UN involvement, but it was important to place on the UN map, and to make the world know, that the Anglican Communion's churches are out there, doing the work, and often doing so on minimal budgets without support.

Provinces from around the Anglican Communion contributed to making pledges of what we hope to do over the next four years. Canada pledged to help resettle refugees; Tanzania pledged to advocate for refugees and ensure they receive proper care and have access to things like Savings Groups to build a future. The Province of Alexandria's Diocese of Egypt pledged to give holistic care via Refuge Egypt to help with integration of the refugees flooding into Egypt. The Church of England's Diocese in Europe has numerous projects, led by local churches across the continent, ranging from supporting refugees and advocating for them in Calais through to the distribution of aid in Bucharest.

The Episcopal Church pledged to advocate for the goals of UNHCR, support refugee resettlement and continue its refugee care. And the wider Anglican Communion pledged to place the care of refugees on the agenda at high-level meetings, to make sure Provinces discuss what they are doing and look at collaboration, and also to support the mental health of refugee children and to help develop faith-sensitive care.

States need to turn their pledges into action, deliver the money they promised and invest more seriously in conflict prevention. Beyond that, we hope to see greater collaboration between states, UN agencies and faith groups already doing the work to enable more effective delivery of support to those most in need. People of faith are often those on the front lines responding to crises and have the local trust and influence to begin to identify and address root causes. Strengthening this collaboration will be a focus of our work in the years to come.

It is not too late to add pledges from the Anglican Communion. If you want to explore a pledge, contact glen.ruffle@anglicancommunion.org

 

View original: https://www.anglicannews.org/blogs/2023/12/anglicans-at-the-global-refugee-forum.aspx

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